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Apple's iCloud goes titsup, email evaporates for unlucky 1%

Shifting behind the curtains at Cupertino pre-iPhone 5

Apple's iCloud online storage service has been on the blink for 15 hours according to its status page. Fanbois relying on Cupertino's idiot-tax outfit to provide their email have been unable to send or access messages for more than half a day.

The iPhone maker stresses that only 1.1 percent of users have been affected by the iCloud outage.

The problems started at 10.20 PDT (18.30 BST) on 11 September, and are ongoing at time of writing. The downtime has affected punters across the world, and largely affected email and Notes. According to Apple other iCloud services - such as calendar syncing, device back-up and "Find my iPhone/iPad"- are working fine. The company offered this update to users:

Mail may be slow or unavailable. When Mail is available, users may experience delays with incoming messages. Normal service will be restored ASAP.

Some of the unlucky 1.1 per cent claim to have been locked out for 24 hours, and have taken to Apple's discussion forums to share their pain. Unlucky user PatsyKB51 wrote:

I am NOT a happy camper, Apple - can't get email once again because iCloud Mail is down. Again.

Fix it. Get it right. When I read that it affects only a "small number" of users that means nothing. I'm ALWAYS ONE OF THOSE AFFECTED.

iCloud is a flagship service for Apple, and central to offering music, film and ebooks to fanbois across the company's growing range of devices. With the launch of the next iPhone due tonight, the blip may have something to do with the big unveiling tonight - and likely caused some upgrades or tweaks to the service that will be trotted out with the new iOS inside the smartmobe.